How Will Dr Afari Gyan Be Remembered?

Who, in the first place, is Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, some people may inquire? He is the Chairman of the Ghana Electoral Commission for the past twenty years. He was appointed to the office by former President Jerry John Rawlings.

Dr Afari Gyan has organised and supervised various national and local elections as his office permits him since his appointment to the august office. Now that this Septuagenarian is barely about to proceed on the journey of the twilight of his life, retirement of course, the question I am asking is, how will he be remembered in the history of Ghana; what will be his legacy?

As opinions differ, and like noses each person having one, irrespective of how ugly or beautiful they are, being rigidly or amenably entitled to their opinion, the following is how I shall remember him.

As often as the Akans proverbially refer to the faecal matter of the lizard when judging an otherwise good person who has rather been cruel and capricious nearing the end, so shall the legacy of Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan – Mr NVNV (No Verification No Vote) be. We do focus more on the affect of the black portion of the lizard's faeces than the white portion. Regardless of how relatively small the black portion might be, its contaminant affect is highly remarkable.

He might have all along performed excellently well in his electoral services/duties to the nation, however, his credibility has been dented since the 2012 Presidential elections in Ghana. The live telecast of the Supreme Court proceedings of Election 2012 petition filed against the Electoral Commission and the allegedly questionably-elected President John Dramani Mahama, with the clearly fumbling for words to justify certain of his actions, proved how Dr Afari Gyan helped rig the elections in favour of President Mahama.

His arrogant posture of "you can go to court, you can go to court" that robbed him of any foresight, has partly contributed to plunging Ghana into the pit of economic darkness with the visitation of unprecedented corruption masterminded and spearheaded by men and women in government, on mother Ghana.

Any good thing he might previously have done as the Chairman of the Electoral Commission pales to nothing when compared to the financial or socio-economic hardships faced by Ghanaians today. If he had been honest in his service to Ghanaians and mother Ghana, we would today not be sitting with a completely clueless, incompetent and corrupt administration presided over by President Mahama, a bird of the same feather.

I shall only remember him as the man who by his arrogance, dishonesty, corruptibility and disregard for the laws of the land but infatuation with "one man showmanship", indirectly collapsed the economy of Ghana in the wake of which were "dumsor", increase in armed robbery, lack of delivery of justice in Ghana etc.

Whatever his good attributes might be, which of course he may have some, to me, he shall be remembered for the greatest bad thing he has done to Ghana, thus, sneaking John Dramani Mahama to the presidency through the backdoor hence the collapse of Ghana as we all bear witness to today.

Kwadwo, proceed on retirement, but must be permanently judged and haunted by your conscience, however consequentially punishably best it appeals to the majority of Ghanaians.

Rockson Adofo